Styrofoam stands no chance against the Red Hot Nickel Ball

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If you haven’t been following the adventures of the Red Hot Nickel Ball (RHNB) then you have been missing out on one of the better things on the internet. The premise of the RHNB is very simple: a brave, blow torch-owning man heats up a nickel sphere until it’s — literally — red hot. He then gets the sphere and drops it on, through, and into different things. Some of these experiments are his own idea, while others are based requests from fans (presumably of the video series, not the ball itself).

In its latest adventure the Red Hot Nickel Ball speeds through a piece of styrofoam and drops into a metal bowl filled with cold water. This is a fairly typical RHNB experiment, though it’s likely not destined to be a classic (we’ll get to those soon).

Pure nickel melts at 1455°C (2651°F), so we know the RHNB is pretty hot, but not quite in that range. Nickel is a good choice for heating and testing with because it’s common, inexpensive, safe to be around, and dense (which gives it a nice “thunk” then you drop it). Plus, “Red Hot Nickel Ball” rolls off the tongue much nicer than “Red Hot Copper Ball” and it’s much more affordable than that Rhodium Ball you’ve had your eye on.

The heat applied in the videos is enough to make the ball quite dangerous to be around — especially given the spherical shape — but not enough to deform it when it makes an impact. Even after going through the test material and losing some heat the RHNB manages to give off a sustained sputter when it lands in whatever its containment vessel happens to be. The final sounds of the rapidly cooling sphere tend to be the best part of the video (at least in my humble opinion).

As for the greatest hits, here goes! First up, the RHNB and honey…

I don’t tend to go for seasonal, holiday-themed content, but the RHNB going surprisingly slowly through a chocolate Easter bunny was incredible:

And then, of course, the classic is the RHNB encountering a block of ice.

It’s not something science ever intended, but it’s comforting to know that physics does not completely fall apart when a 2000° metal sphere falls into a vat of honey (or something similarly ridiculous happens).